Improvement in preserving wood



UNITED STATES PATENT FFIGE.

WILLIAM WELLHOUSE AND 'ERWIN HAGEN, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, AS-

sienons' T0 SAID WELLHOUSE, AMOS isnornnn, Ann JOSEPH P. CARD,

or SAME PLACE, ONE-THIRD o EACH.

IMPROVEMENT IN PRESERVING WO OD.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 216,589 dated June 17, 1879; application filed March 17, 1879.

',To all whom it may concern:

Be itnknown that we, WILLIAM WELL- HOUSE and ERWIN HAGEN, residents of the city of St. Louis, Missouri, have jointly made a new and useful Improvement in Preserving Wood, of which the following is a full, clear,

and exact description. 7

The present improvement has relation to the materials .nsed in treating the wood and the mode ofretaining the preservative within the wood.

We employ chloride of zinc, gelatine, and tannin, and as follows: The chloride of zinc and gelatine are first introduced into the wood,

and afterward thetannin is introduced.

If desired, the chloride of zinc and gelatine can be introduced separately; but to simplify the operation we preferably combine them in i one solution, and inject them at the same time.

The action of the chloride of zinc is well understood from its use in the Burnettfiing process, the material serving to preserve the soluble, for upon being introduced into the wood it acts upon the gelatine in the usual manner, converting it into a leathery sub- *stancennafiected by moisture.

The compound thus formed from the gelatine and tannin not only serves to close the pores at and near the surface of the wood,bnt

also throughout the same. The efi'ect is both to fix the chloride of zinc within the wood, so

thatit cannot leave the wood, and to render out. t a

The process in detail is, preferably, as follows: Take the wood as soon after it is cutas is practicable; inclose it in a suitable cylinder, create a vacuum therein,-and extract the sap from the wood, all in the usual manner. Then, by the customary method, introduce into the wood the chloride of zinc and gelatine in the form of a solution, the proportions, preferably, being, by weight, three parts of chloride of zinc andthrec parts of gelatine to ninety-four parts of water. Before introducin g the tannin, the water of the first solution is, preferably, extracted from the wood, which tannin, in the form of a solution, of any desired strength for acting upon the gelatine, is then injected intothe wood.

Ordinary glue can-be used as a desirable form of ge1atine,'and the tannin can be most readily obtained from sumac.

hardening and strengthening the wood. We are aware, in preserving wood, that chloride of zinc and gelatine have been used in combination.

We claim- The process of saturating and preserving wood, which consists in subjecting the wood .to close the pores of the same, substantially as described.

WM. WELLHOUSE.

- EBWIN HAGEN.

Witnesses:

CHAS. D. MOODY, L..L. WALBRIDGE.

thewood firmer, tougher, and stronger throughmay be effected in any preferable mode. The

The glue. without the tannin is valuable in I first to a solution of chloride of zinc and gelatine, and afterward to a solution of tannin 

